Employees seeking executive unemployment benefits tend to have a condition I call “rational and reasonable“.

Unfortunately, Minnesota’s unemployment system isn’t as rational or reasonable as you might have hoped.

In my practice, I see executives make fabulous career advancements. When a position or career gets derailed, I encourage executive employees to put away their ego and review whether they are eligible for MN unemployment benefits.

Executive Unemployment: Benefit Eligibility Issues

In addition to benefit eligibility, here is a short list of issues I see most often:

Non-compete agreements,
Application of fringe benefits,
Buy-out agreements,
Stock option valuations,
Separation agreements,
Work related injuries, and
Wrongful termination claims.

Unfortunately, all of these issues can impact or delay benefits. The unemployment rules for a delay can be found under MN unemployment statute 268.085. For conduct issues, I encourage folks to read and understand rule 268.095.

Executive Unemployment: Benefit Stereotypes

If you want to talk about stereotypes, take a second look at the picture I used to highlight this article.

Additionally, executive level workers in Minnesota get stereotyped when trying to collect unemployment benefits because they are compelled to disclose their salary and wages. Whether it actually happens, I believe upper tier payment structures can impact the unemployment office.

On the other hand, this is not a reason to stop an appeal or back away from applying in the first place.

In other countries, workers of all levels buy an insurance product exclusive to a job loss. In the United States, we have a different system that allocates tax dollars.

With few exceptions, I hardly see valid reasons why an executive level manager should refrain from applying or appealing their benefit eligibility.

Unemployment Benefits for Executives

Luckily, the one ingredient that helps most employees in high levels is their acknowledgment of reducing risk.

Luckily, the rules for lower wage workers and higher waged workers are the same. In my experience, every person at every level can help themselves by filling in answers to application questions to reduce the risk of an unemployment appeal.

For those already involved in the appeal process, Minnesota law favors workers and employees. The trick is finding and applying the rules that apply to a specific situation.